Entering Friday, the silicone market is showing a supply-demand resonance trend. Specifically, the current situation between the United States and Iran is fluctuating, and Iran's methanol facilities continue to shut down, causing methanol prices to continue to fluctuate at high levels. Yesterday's quotation rebounded to 3360 yuan/ton, providing strong support for DMC prices. At the same time, the increase in self use of DMC by several major manufacturers has further exacerbated the tight supply situation. Under this support, the mainstream quotation of DMC remains stable at a high level of 14500-15000 yuan/ton, and some individual factories are closed and not quoting, indicating a strong willingness to raise prices. In terms of orders, with the gradual consumption of low-priced sources in the early stage, the market's high price transactions have improved. At the same time, the terminal market is gradually recovering, and the demand for emerging fields such as photovoltaics, new energy vehicles, and AI is accelerating, further boosting downstream stocking confidence. Urgent procurement continues to follow up. Overall, the inventory of midstream and downstream enterprises has dropped to a low level, and the demand for replenishment is gradually accumulating. In order to ensure normal production during the May Day holiday, it is expected to start centralized replenishment at the end of the month, driving the further upward recovery of the organic silicon market. In short, against the backdrop of supply contraction and resonance between replenishment demand, the market center of gravity is expected to continue to steadily rise.
Industrial silicon: On the supply side, the production in the southwest region is stable, while the number of furnaces in the northern region has slightly decreased, with little overall change in supply. On the demand side, high inventory of polycrystalline silicon is suppressed, while organic silicon monomer factories mainly focus on digesting inventory, with limited demand for industrial silicon. Overall, there is no clear signal of accelerated inventory depletion or increased demand in the market. High inventory and weak demand continue to suppress industrial silicon prices. As of April 16th, the closing price of the main futures contract Si2605 was 8480 yuan/ton; The quotation for 421 # metal silicon is 9300-10000 yuan/ton. It is expected to maintain weak volatility in the short term.
The market for precipitated white carbon black: On the raw material side, due to increased supply in some regions and export policies, market prices have not changed much. Yesterday, Shengyishe quoted a sulfuric acid price of 2100 yuan/ton, an increase of 20.52% from the beginning of the month. It is expected that sulfuric acid prices will remain high in the short term; In terms of soda ash, the production load of manufacturers has increased this week, with downstream essential procurement being the main focus. The overall market trading is average, and the current prices for light alkali and heavy alkali are 940-1570 yuan/ton. The cost is strongly supported by white carbon black.
On the demand side, the downstream silicone rubber market is currently showing stable demand with limited order growth. However, under bullish expectations, the purchase of white carbon black continues to be a necessity. Currently, the price of precipitated white carbon black for silicone rubber remains at 6800-8000 yuan/ton, and the market continues to operate steadily.